Posts Tagged ‘urban planning’

Tweet Enrique Peñalosa is the former mayor of Bogota and he has become famous for putting in place radical equity measures such as restricting private car use and installing hundreds of kilometers of sidewalks, bicycle paths, pedestrian streets, greenways, and parks. Some of his most well known accomplishments during his tenure as mayor of Bogota are organizing the first city-wide Car-Free day in 2001 where a city of 6.5 million people banned cars from its streets, opening up public spaces for all people to walk, bicycle, and enjoy the city and bringing a very successful Bus Rapid Transit system to…

Tweet In The Death and Life of Great American Cities, Jane Jacobs said that “Cities need old buildings so badly it is probably impossible for vigorous streets and districts to grow without them.” But in an age of burgeoning urban populations and a pressing need to accommodate a more and more people into cities, does this still hold true? Shouldn’t we be replacing older smaller buildings with LEED Platinum high-rises? “Where do older, smaller buildings fit within cities that are seeking to maximize transit investments, increase density, and compete in the global economy” ask some urbanists. A new report…

Tweet I just spent more than two weeks now in the suburb of Chandler, Arizona. As far as suburbs go, it’s not bad. It’s actually considered an “inner ring” suburb, at a whopping 25 miles from downtown Phoenix, which is a testament to how sprawling Phoenix metro really is. Every time I spend time in the suburbs, I am reminded of why I live in the city. Suburbia is like Wonder Bread – bland, easily digestible, convenient, but really it offers little in terms of nutrition for the soul. Here are 10 reasons why: 1. Everything looks the same. Perhaps…

Tweet Yesterday, I watched a movie called The Human Scale by Danish director Andreas Dalsgaard chronicling several cities and the way they respond to people. The movie was based on Danish architect Jan Gehl’s principles about people-oriented cities. A cautionary thread in the movie revolved around the rapid urbanization of China and how Chinese cities are dealing with the population boom by building more highways and high-rises. On a hopeful note, the movie also featured cities, like Copenhagen, New York and Melbourne, that are re-orienting their urban planning to accommodate human beings and that have transformed formerly car-oriented spaces into people-oriented…

Tweet I live 528 feet away from The Waffle Window on Hawthorne. I go there every Saturday morning for my people-watching + waffle fix. Below are 6 reasons why I love this place so much. 1. It generates urban vibrancy. The Waffle Window is a people magnet. Imagine the crowds and energy at a busy restaurant. The Waffle Window generates this same kind of energy but right on the street. So the whole neighborhood gets to benefit from the vibrancy it generates. People anxiously awaiting their waffles on a lovely Saturday morning in March. 2. It turns a parking lot…

Tweet Yesterday, I started to tell you about my love affair with the city of Portland. Today I’ll tell you the second part of the story. Monday in Portland was even better than Sunday. My friend Anna George who knows how much I love tea recommended this great tea bar called Tea, Chai, Te. What better place to have breakfast, I thought. So again (and thank goodness for Google Maps on the iPhone!) I punched in the address and saw that it was in a (what ended up being a very cute) neighborhood northwest of where I was staying. At…

Tweet Today’s post is by contributing writer Jennifer Gunther: Taking the bus, hopping on the light rail and walking have been my usual means of navigating the Valley for the past two years. Every mile I have ridden or block I have walked has offered me a unique experience that driving from Point A to Point B could not. Although driving is its own pleasure, public transportation should be a desirable option for all Phoenix-area residents. It is imperative in the desert heat, which is at its most intense this time of year, that Phoenix and its surrounding suburbs reconsider…

Tweet This Monday I interviewed Wes Gullett, who is running for Mayor of the City of Phoenix and is currently a partner at First Strategic, a strategic communications and public affairs company. This interview with Mr. Gullett is the fourth in my series of interviews with the major mayoral candidates. To get an in-depth view of where the different candidates stand on issues like public transit, historic preservation and further growth in Phoenix read the Blooming Rock interviews with Claude Mattox, Greg Stanton and Peggy Neely too. Note: If you’re not registered to vote yet, please do so now by…

Tweet In March, I had the pleasure of seeing architect Michael Pinto speak at the Taliesin West Spring Lecture series. Michael’s office, Osborn Architects, is based in Los Angeles, a city that faces a lot of the same problems as Phoenix, except magnified and sometimes it’s a little bit further ahead in addressing those problems. The reason I decided to interview Michael was that I could tell that he takes a much broader approach to architecture than just designing beautiful buildings. He actually thinks that architects can change the world for the better. And so I was hooked. Michael proved…